Questions tagged [methodology]

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What are some resources for writing professional philosophical research articles?

I am a philosophy graduate student. I have written several papers, but I've never been able to publish them, and they all got rejected. Therefore, I started to think that my skills were not good ...
user466441's user avatar
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1 answer
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Does submitting in PhilArchive affect submission in journals?

I wanted to submit a paper to PhilArchive (an open-access e-print archive in philosophy). If I want to submit this paper to a journal afterwards, does this prior submission to PhilArchive affect the ...
user466441's user avatar
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What is Husserl's "reductionist method"?

In Ideas, Husserl seems pretty convinced that phenomenology is a new science. He says that phenomenology is a descriptive science, and having read through Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception, ...
DanielFBest's user avatar
7 votes
3 answers
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Implicit Models and Probability - are degrees of belief/truth/existence a complete free-for-all?

Or, to put it another way, as long as you model your statements using the grammatical framework of our modern logical idioms, is it appropriate practice to assign a probability to any utterance at all,...
Paul Ross's user avatar
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If calculating the p-value post-hoc is meaningless, why is it reasonable to believe the Grimm's Law (and other laws of historical phonology) is true?

Why is it reasonable to believe that the Grimm's Law is true? How can those things be scientifically investigated?An obvious answer is that we can take an dictionary of native Gothic words and the ...
FlatAssembler's user avatar
3 votes
4 answers
211 views

What is there to philosophy these days, other than intellectual self-gratification?

Preliminary notes I understand that the title of my question has a provocative note. However it also stems from a genuine question. I come from the standpoint of being a radical agnostic and ...
chasly - supports Monica's user avatar
11 votes
12 answers
3k views

How To Distinguish Between Philosophy And Non-Philosophy?

Surely not all thinking or intellectual effort is philosophy, right? Where to draw line between philosophy and all other thinking? What, if any, feature is present only in philosophy?
DareWithTruth's user avatar
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How can spirituality be reliably researched? [closed]

My questions are 1 is there a reliable method for research into spiritual activity such as an individual providing healing, or any other service? 2 is there a ‘happy medium’ pardon the pun, that’s ...
Eranerdog's user avatar
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5 answers
474 views

Why do many philosophers state their arguments without using mathematics or formal language?

I am an amateur lover of philosophy and a researcher in physics and computer science. When reading a book of philosophy, I always find it frustrating that philosophers are so polysemous and ambiguous ...
Light Yagmi's user avatar
2 votes
2 answers
113 views

Term for the dichotomy of blaming a philosophical counter-example on oneself vs. our commonsense

Imagine some philosopher answers a question of the form "What is X?". Then a critic points out that, according to this answer, O is not X, but we clearly consider it to be X. It seems that ...
303's user avatar
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How should Feyerabend's "Anything goes" be interpreted?

Paul Feyerabend, in his response to supposed methodologies used in science (falsification, research programs, normal science and paradigm revolutions, etc.) in general and of Imre Lakatos' research ...
Deschele Schilder's user avatar
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How can I describe the methodology for this paper?

I'm writing a paper on philosophy about the role of spirituality in our lives. I'm using talks and debates between Jordan Peterson and Sam Harris and other debates available on Youtube. How can I ...
Myown Gait's user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
77 views

Are there any points that can't be made without thought experiments?

Are all thought experiments simply another way to assert certain claims and examples or does it have inherent epistemological value? Edit: is there any point that can't be made without thought ...
user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
91 views

Can there be a rule of thumb / algorithm to optimize level of generality?

When we define an abstract structure, establish theories or theorems, or build models, etc., we tend to want them to be "general" enough so they can be applied to a variety of situations. ...
Erin's user avatar
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1 vote
3 answers
161 views

Why do many philosophers attach so much importance to laymen intuition?

For instance, when discussing "what is Justice", one of Rawls's key argument for "justice has to be a universal concept" is that we do not talk about anything that is "just ...
J Li's user avatar
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Validity of different pramāṇas for Hinduism

Which philosophical arguments support claims like The Vedas are the eternal truths of God, or Veda has existed forever and will exist forever? Which pramāṇas – e.g., pratyakșa, anumāna, śabda – ...
Jo Wehler's user avatar
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Does Heidegger (or Blanchot?) reflect on the form of the question itself?

I have this notion that Heidegger is the first person to think about the framing of the question as a mode of inquiry. That is, to approach something as a question is to be already decided that a ...
Jerry's user avatar
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1 answer
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Where does Aristotle say it's impossible to do philosophy and its methodology simultaneously?

In which of Aristotle's works does he say it's impossible to do philosophy and its methodology simultaneously?
Geremia's user avatar
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7 votes
3 answers
1k views

Do theories come from observations or do they determine what is observed?

While re-reading Shimon Malin’s “Nature Loves to Hide” I was trying to get a better grasp of the distinction between Ernst Mach’s philosophy that theory comes from observable magnitudes alone and what ...
Frank Hubeny's user avatar
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5 votes
2 answers
957 views

Is topology of cultural ideas and concepts studied in modern philosophy?

I am going to mumble about couple of things I really don't know and I am going to ask for guidance and further reading material. There is a field of mathematics called topology which studies ...
meguli's user avatar
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Inductive approach and descriptive research

Descriptive research is often said to take a deductive approach and is quantitative in nature. Can it also be inductive when little is know about the topic? Is there not a contradiction then? I am a ...
T.Tincer's user avatar
5 votes
2 answers
1k views

When studying philosophy, is there a prioritization of primary or secondary sources/texts?

How do/did philosophers like Zizek, Cornel West, Derrida, Sartre study philosohy? Did they focus on primary sources or secondary? Both at the same time? I am currently reading a primary source and ...
Sphygmomanometer's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
168 views

Reasons to think that metaphysical theories express contingent truths

In a paper I read recently, the author claims that metaphysical theories such as Determinism or Materialism/Physicalism may be regarded as contingent truths. I take Determinism and Materialism/...
Felix Emanuel's user avatar
9 votes
2 answers
940 views

Why should we listen to Michel Foucault if he based his arguments on biased historical claims?

I have only recently heard about philosophical ideas of Michel Foucault from a friend of mine. His claims, those concerning madness for example, sound iconoclastic to me. After looking up some ...
Zhipu 'Wilson' Zhao's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
265 views

Why does Quine expand the underdetermination thesis through his global holism?

Quine's application of the problem of underdetermination took the thesis to be a problem not only for physics (as Duhem before him), nor even for the particular sciences, but for any and all theories ...
Ovid 's user avatar
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2 answers
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What does "speculative" exactly mean in philosophy? [duplicate]

Recently, I read a lot about "Speculative Realism" being the (not that) new kid in town. But what does "speculative" or "speculation" exactly mean in the domain of philosophy? What exactly ...
XXXZZZ's user avatar
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1 vote
1 answer
247 views

Is deconstruction not a method because methodologies are mechanistic?

Deconstruction is a commonly used term in contemporary literary theory as well as philosophy. In Letter to a Japanese Friend, Derrida indicates that Deconstruction is "not a method" and cannot be ...
user avatar
1 vote
2 answers
102 views

Can anyone help me find critical published responses to this paper?

Research and discovery of counterarguments has quite a lot to do with philosophy as a practice, and I'm hoping to improve on my technique and see what others can do. In line with this, I have a ...
Ryder's user avatar
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